Alabama governor Bob Riley has signed into law a Bill providing US$80m to the port of Mobile for the construction of a new container terminal. The remaining funding for the US$300m project will come from Alabama State Docks revenues and a private terminal partner yet to be identified.
The Choctaw Point Terminal will have two 1,000 ft berths served by four gantry cranes on a 92-acre site. The facility, which is expected to be operating by 2007, also has draughts up to 45 ft. It will be connected by road to a new 57-acre intermodal terminal capable of accommodating trains up to 8,000 ft in length.
Four leading railway companies already serve the port.
In addition the funding will help to create a warehousing and distribution centre that will be served by the new terminal. State officials and executives at the port, long an important bulk products centre that until now has not had a significant container presence, hope the development will lure businesses to Alabama, allowing for further expansion of the container port and its related facilities.
The long-term development plan foresees the construction of additional container berths and warehouse and distribution space to come on line by 2015 or when annual throughput exceeds 300,000 TEUs.
A report on the new container port's potential by consultants Moffatt & Nichol suggested that the northsouth trades represented the largest and most obvious market for the facility.
At the same time, the large number of chemical firms with a 150-mile radius of Mobile suggested that trade with Europe could flourish. The US-Mexico container trade, hampered by slow road connections, could also benefit through new services across the Gulf of Mexico, it said.
